Adoption of Recommended Sustainable Paddy Farming Practices in Telangana State, India

Abstract

Agriculture had a significant negative impact on environment for many decades. More land, fertiliser and pesticides had been used to increase the yield. Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. According to research, a number of factors can affect farmers' decisions to effectively implement sustainable practises. This present investigation was undertaken during 2021-2023 to specify the item wise adoption of recommended sustainable Paddy farming practices in three districts namely Nizamabad, Khammam and Nalgonda districts representing North, Central and South agro climatic zones of Telangana state, respectively as these three districts account for more Paddy area from amongst the respective zones. Purposive sampling technique was employed for data collection from 216 Paddy farmers. Findings revealed that item wise adoption of recommended sustainable practices, depicts the partial adoption of listed components such as (puddling had complete adoption), selection of variety, selection of certified seed, seed rate, seed treatment (chemical methods had no adoption, pre-germination of Paddy seeds had complete adoption), nursery seed bed raising (sowing at recommended time had complete adoption), age of seedling (maintaining closer spacing of aged seedlings and increasing number of aged seedlings per hill had complete adoption), time of transplanting (transplanting in (first fortnight of June-July Kharif), (October -November-Rabi) had complete adoption), method of transplanting (transplanting the recommended number of seedlings per hill had complete adoption), row spacing (maintaining the recommended spacing between the two hills had complete adoption), fertilizers application, weed management, integrated pest and disease management, time of harvesting (harvesting crop at the recommended time had complete adoption) and method of harvesting (harvesting through combine harvester, drying Paddy after harvesting for one to two days and crop rotation like growing legumes before cereals to enhance farms biological stability had complete adoption). It may be a result of the farming experience, farming commitment, education, economic motivation, achievement motivation, connections with extension services, risk orientation and innovativeness in their farming methods drive for success. The aforementioned pattern of findings was also influenced by the efforts of line departments and front-line extension organisations like the District Agricultural Advisory and Transfer of Technology Centre and Krishi Vigyan Kendra’s.